Western Front Comradeship

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The Importance of Comradeship In All Quiet on the Western Front, Enrich Maria Remarque sends many messages by describing the cruelty of war. During World War I, many believed fighting in war was to be put on a pedestal and glorified, but Remarque changed that opinion with powerful descriptions of the harsh realities of war and how it affected relationships between comrades. Through all the bloodshed and brutality of World War I, it is arguable that the only good thing to emerge was the strengthened bond between comrades. After the death of Kemmerich, Paul realizes that all the soldiers have is each other. Very quickly he learns that “the finest thing [to arise] out of the war [is] comradeship.” After seeing just a few deaths, Paul catches…show more content…
The only thing helping them survive the war is knowing they have each other. Their previous memories turn into stories to them and Paul is practically numb to the fact that his mom has cancer. During his visit home, he cannot connect his family because he constantly thinks about his comrades and if they are still alive or not. When Paul’s father and sister visit him, he describes it as “torture; [they] do not know what to talk about, so [they] speak of my mother's illness.” Paul is unable to connect with even his own family, the only people he can talk to are his comrades, the men who have seen the same horrors and gone through the same pain as him. Also, the soldiers try to imagine their life as it was before the war, but they are unable to. They tried to imagine their innocence, their happiness, and a life without seeing deaths everyday, but they cannot. The images of the war have scared them and trying to regain that youthful innocence would be “like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in the memory; but the man himself it is not.” World War I has stripped the soldier’s ability to know life without shellings, gas attacks, and bombs. Even when Paul walks down the street in his hometown, the sound of motors make him cover because it sounds like
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